"Roman name, exalt your pride to a prodigious degree. For my part, I wish your republic may observe punctually the "treaties it has concluded with me: but, in case I should "be invaded by it, I hope to show, that the empire of Ma"cedonia does not yield to Rome either in valour or reputation." The deputy withdrew from Abydos with this answer, and Philip having taken that city, left a strong garrison in it, and returned to Macedonia.

Æmilius seems to have gone into Egypt, whilst the two other ambassadors went very probably to Antiochus. Æmilius, being arrived at Alexandria, assumed the guardianship of Ptolemy, in the name of the Romans, pursuant to the instructions he had received from the senate at his setting out; and settled every thing to as much advantage as the state of affairs in Egypt would then admit. He appointed Aristomenes, the Acarnanian, to superintend the education and person of the young monarch, and made him prime minister. This Aristomenes had grown old in the court of Egypt, and acted with the utmost prudence and fidelity in the employment conferred upon him.

a In the mean time the forces of Philip laid Attica waste, the pretence of which invasion was as follows. Two young men of Acarnania being in Athens, at the time when the great mysteries were solemnising there, had entered with the crowd into the temple of Ceres, not knowing that it was forbidden. Though their fault proceeded entirely from ignorance, they were immediately massacred, as guilty of impiety and sacrilege. The Acarnanians, justly exasperated at so cruel a treatment, had recourse to Philip, who gladly embraced this opportunity, and gave them a body of forces, with which they entered Attica, ravaged the whole country, and returned home laden with spoils.

The Athenians carried their complaints against this enterprise to Rome, and were joined on that occasion by the Rhodians and king Attalus. The Romans only sought for an opportunity to break with king Philip, at whom they were very much offended. He had infringed the conditions of the treaty of peace concluded with him three years before, in not ceasing to infest the allies who were included in it. He had just before sent troops and money to Hannibal in Africa; and a report was spread that he was at that time very busy in Asia. This made the Romans uneasy, who called to mind the trouble which Pyrrhus had brought upon them, with only a handful of Epirots, a people very much inferior to the Macedonians. Thus, having ended the war against Carthage, they imagined it advisable to prevent the enterprises. of this new enemy, who might become formidable, in case b Ibid. n. 1-3.

a Liv. l. xxxi. n. 14.

they should give him time to increase his strength. The senate, after making such an answer as pleased all the ambassadors, ordered M. Valerius Levinus, the proprætor, to advance towards Macedonia with a fleet, in order to examine matters nearer at hand, and be in a condition to give immediate aid to the allies.

In the mean time the Roman senate deliberated seriously on what was to be done in the present juncture. At the very time it assembled to consider that important affair, a second embassy arrived from the Athenians, which brought advice that Philip was upon the point of invading Attica in person; and that in case they were not immediately succoured, he would infallibly make himself master of Athens. They also received letters from Levinus the proprætor, and from Aurelius his lieutenant, by which they were informed that they had the strongest reasons to believe that Philip had some design against them; and that the danger being imminent, they had no time to lose.

Upon this news, the Romans resolved to proclaim war against Philip. Accordingly, P. Sulpitius, the consul, to whom Macedonia, had fallen by lot, put to sea with an army, and soon arrived there. Here he was soon informed that Athens was besieged, and implored his assistance. He detached a squadron of twenty gallies, commanded by Claudius Cento, who set sail that instant. Philip had not laid siege to Athens in person, but deputed one of his lieutenants for that purpose; having taken the field in person against Attalus and the Rhodians.

SECT. II.

Expeditions of Sulpitius. Philip loses a battle. The Ache= ans declare for the Romans.

c Claudius Cento, whom the consul had sent to succour Athens, having entered the Piræus with his gallies, revived the drooping courage of the inhabitants. He was not satisfied with placing the city and the country round it in a state of security, but as he had been informed that the garrison of Chalcis did not observe the least order or discipline, as considering themselves remote from danger, he sailed out with his fleet, arrived near the city before day, and finding the sentinels asleep, entered it without molestation; set fire to the public magazines which were full of corn, and to the arsenal that was well provided with machines, of war; cut the whole garrison to pieces; and after carrying on board

a Liv:1. xxxi. : 5. b A. M 3804. Ant. J. C 300. Liv. xi. 14 c A. M. 3804. Ant. J. C. 205, LIV. l. xxxi. n» 22-26:

his ships the immense booty he had amassed, he returned to the Piræus.

Philip, who was then at Demetrias, the instant he heard of the disaster which had befallen that confederate city, flew thither, in hopes of surprising the Romans. However, they were gone; so that he seemed to have come for no other purpose, but to be spectator of that city, still burning and and half ruined. He would certainly have treated Athens in the same manner, if one of the courtiers, called a Hemerodromi, who perceived the king's troops from the eminence where he was posted, had not carried the news of it immediately to Athens, where the inhabitants were all asleep. Philip arrived a few hours after, but before day-break. Perceiving that his stratagem had not taken effect, he resolved to attack the city. The Athenians had drawn up their soldiers in order of battle without the walls, at the gate Dipylos; Philip, marching at the head of his ariny, attacked them with vigour, and having killed several of them with his own hand, repulsed them back into the city, whither he did not think it advisable to pursue them. But he wreaked his vengeance on the country seats, on the places for the public exercises, as the Lyceum, and especially on such temples as stood without the city; setting fire to every thing, and ruining whatever came in his way, not sparing either the tombs or the most sacred places.

He marched from hence with a view of surprising Eleusis, where his project also proved abortive. He then proceeded towards Corinth, when hearing that the Achæans held their assembly at Argos, he went thither.

They were deliberating how to act in regard to Nabis, the tyrant of Sparta, who had succeeded Machanidas, and infested the whole country with his incursions. Philip offered to undertake alone the management of that war, and his proposal was received with universal joy. However, he added a condition which abated it very much; that they should furnish him with as many troops as were necessary for garrisoning Oræa, Chalcis, and Corinth, that he might not leave the places behind him without defence, whilst he was fighting for them. They perceived that his design was to draw out of Peloponnesus all the Achæan youth, in order to make himself master of it, and engage it in the war against the Romans. Cycliadus, who presided in the assembly, eluded the proposal, by observing, that it was not allowed, by their laws, to debate on any subject but that for which the assembly had been summoned. They therefore broke up, after having resolved upon the war against Nabis; and the hopes of Philip were again defeated.

a They were so called from running a great number of miles in one day,

He made a second attempt upon Athens, which succeeded no better than the former, except that he completed the demolition of such temples, statues, and valuable works, as remained in that country. After this expedition, he retired into Boeotia.

a The consul, who was encamped between Apollonia and Dyrrachium, sent to Macedonia a considerable detachment, under the command of Apustius the lieutenant, who laid waste the open country, and took several small cities. Philip, who was returned into Macedonia, carried on his military preparations with prodigious vigour.

The great object which both parties had in view, was to engage the Etolians on their side. They were now going to hold their general assembly, to which Philip, the Romans, and Athenians, sent their ambassadors. He who was deputed by Philip spoke first. All he required was, that the Ætolians should observe strictly the treaties of peace which they had concluded three years before with Philip; having then experienced how useless their alliance with the Romans was to them. He instanced several cities, of which that people had possessed themselves, upon pretence of succour ing them, as Syracuse, Tarentum, Capua; the last city especially, which was no longer Capua, but the grave of the Campanians, and the skeleton, as it were, of a city, having neither senate, inhabitants, or magistrates; having been more barbarously used by those who had left it to be inhabited in this condition, than if they had entirely destroyed it. "If foreigners," says he, "who differ from us more by their language, their manners, and their laws, than by the wide "distance of land and sea which separate us from them, "should dispossess us of this country, it would be ridiculous "in us to expect more humane treatment from them than "their neighbours have met with. Among us, who are of "the same country, whether Etolians, Acarnanians, or "Macedonians, and who speak the same language, slight disputes may arise of little or no consequence or duration; "but with foreigners, with barbarians, we, whilst we are "Greeks, are, and shall for ever be, at war. In this same assembly three years since you concluded a peace with Philip: the same causes still subsist; and we hope that you "will act in the same manner."

66

The Athenian ambassadors, by the consent of the Romans, spoke next. They began by displaying, in an affecting manner, the impious and sacrilegious fury which Philip had exercised on the most sacred monuments of Attica, on the most august temples, and the most venerated tombs; as if he had declared war, not only against men, and the living, but

a Liv. 1. xxxi n. 27-32,

against the manes of the dead, and the majesty of the gods. That Ætolia and all Greece must expect the same treatment, if Philip should have the like occasion. They concluded with conjuring the Ætolians to take compassion on Athens, and to undertake, under the auspices of the gods, and of the Romans, whose power that of the gods alone could equal, so just a war as that proposed to them.

The Roman ambassador, after having refuted very circumstantially the reproaches of the Macedonian, with respect to the treatment which Rome had made the conquered cities suffer; and exemplified in Carthage, which, but just before, had been allowed a peace, and was restored to its liberty; declared, that the only circumstance the Romans had to fear was, that the too great mildness and lenity which they exercised toward those they conquered would prompt other nations to take up arms against them, because the vanquished might depend on the Roman clemency. He represented in a short, but strong and pathetic speech, the criminal actions of Philip, the murders committed by him on his own family and his friends; his infamous debaucheries, which were still more detested than his cruelty; all facts more immediately known to the persons whom he then addressed, as they were nearer neighbours to Macedonia, But, to confine my speech to what relates directly to you,' says the ambassador, addressing himself to the Etolians, we engaged in the war against Philip, with no other view "than to defend you; and you have concluded a separate peace with him. Possibly you may observe, in your own justification, that seeing us employed in the war against "the Carthaginians, and being awed by fear, you were obliged to submit to whatever conditions the victor was "pleased to prescribe; whilst we, on the other side, employed in affairs of greater importance, neglected a war แ which you had renounced. However, having now put an "end (thanks to the gods) to the Carthaginian war, we are going to turn the whole force of our arms against Mace"donia. This gives you an opportunity of returning to our friendship and alliance, unless you should choose to perish " ingloriously with Philip, rather than conquer with the Ro"mans."

a

Damocritus, the Etolian prætor, plainly perceived that this speech would gain all the voices. It is said, that he had been bribed by Philip. Without seeming inclined to either side, he represented the affair as too important to be determined immediately, and required time for a more mature deliberation. By this artifice he eluded the effect which the assembly would otherwise have had; and boasted his having done a very essential service to the republic, which now (he